CIVIL servants working in Wales will have to wait until July to find out whether their jobs will be axed as part of the Chancellor's war on waste.

Gordon Brown's eighth Budget on Wednesday detailed plans for up to 40,500 "backroom" staff cuts to save up to "£20bn for frontline services".

The Department for Work and Pensions, Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue are first in the firing line but all Whitehall departments have been ordered to tighten their belts over the next four years.

The three earmarked departments have a significant presence in Wales providing high salaried jobs.

However the Treasury said yesterday it was far too early to say how badly the nation would be effected.

A spokeswoman said, "This is part of the on-going spending review and a clear picture will emerge at the Comprehensive Spending Review in July."

The Treasury confirmed yesterday while it expected the bulk of the cuts to be made through natural wastage and voluntary redundancy it could not rule out compulsory redundancy.

Talks began yesterday between senior Cabinet Office officials and the Public and Commercial Services Union.

The union has suggested up to 2,000 jobs could go in Wales but could not say yesterday how that figure had been arrived at. The Treasury itself had no suggestions about where the cuts would fall.

However in the four years covering the Chancellor's proposed efficiency drive it has been suggested as many as 40% of the jobs earmarked could be found through natural wastage.

That could reduce the union's headline figure of 2,000 proposed job cuts to 800.

The impact on the economy could be further off-set by the Lyons Review - which recommends moving up to 20,000 Whitehall posts out into the nations and the regions.

Newport and Cardiff have been earmarked as prime sites for relocation, with up to 500 jobs in the Office for National Statistics thought to be coming to Wales.

That would reduce the potential impact of the Chancellor's Budget to 300 jobs which would have less of an damaging effect on the economy.

Plaid Cymru's economics spokesman Adam Price said the uncertainties surrounding the issue highlighted the need for some clarity as soon as possible.

Mr Price said as the DWP, Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise had done far more to locate jobs out of London than other departments the effects on the nations and the regions could be disproportionately high.

He said, "There is not much scope to reduce in London much further because they are already well advanced in relocation to the regions."